Banks Jayme C, Hariri Sepideh, Kveraga Kestutis, Ouyang An, Gallagher Kaileigh, Quadri Syed A, Tesh Ryan A, Reed Preeti Upadhyay, Thomas Robert J, Westover M Brandon, Sun Haoqi, Subramaniam Balachundhar
Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114 USA.
Clinical Data Animation Center (CDAC), MGH, Boston, MA USA.
Mindfulness (N Y). 2025;16(6):1675-1692. doi: 10.1007/s12671-025-02583-y. Epub 2025 May 16.
We aimed to quantify the effects of advanced meditation on brain electrical activity during sleep. This investigation addresses the need for objective neurophysiological measures of meditation's potential impact on brain aging and health.
This study was a single-site, prospective cohort study (conducted August 25, 2021, through September 26, 2021) of meditators attending the "Samyama Sadhana" retreat (September 1-5, 2021). Two healthy comparison groups and four comparison groups with varying degrees of age-related brain pathology are included. Using overnight electroencephalography, physiological measures of brain age were derived and subtracted from chronological age, measuring the deviation of apparent brain age from chronological age.
Thirty-four participants completed the study (average age = 38 years; 36% female). Estimated brain age index after adjustment by matching: meditators ( = 34), - 5.9 years ( = 0.94 years, -test < 0.001); Dreem healthy controls ( = 1077), - 0.24 (0.61, < 0.001); Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) healthy controls ( = 112), 0.55 (0.92, < 0.05); MGH "no dementia" ( = 7618), 2.4 (0.094, reference cohort for -test); MGH "symptomatic" ( = 697), 2.0 (0.33, > 0.05); MGH "mild cognitive impairment (MCI)"( = 205), 8.8 (2.8, < 0.05); and MGH "dementia" ( = 153), 10.5 (2.8, < 0.01).
Long-term meditators exhibit lower brain age relative to matched control groups. This study suggests that advanced meditation enhances brain health.
This study was not preregistered.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12671-025-02583-y.
我们旨在量化深度冥想对睡眠期间大脑电活动的影响。本研究满足了对冥想对大脑衰老和健康潜在影响进行客观神经生理学测量的需求。
本研究是一项单中心前瞻性队列研究（于2021年8月25日至2021年9月26日进行），研究对象为参加“Samyama Sadhana”静修活动（2021年9月1日至5日）的冥想者。纳入了两个健康对照组和四个不同程度患有与年龄相关脑病理的对照组。通过夜间脑电图，得出大脑年龄的生理测量值，并从实际年龄中减去，测量表观大脑年龄与实际年龄的偏差。
34名参与者完成了研究（平均年龄 = 38岁；36%为女性）。匹配调整后的估计脑年龄指数：冥想者（n = 34），-5.9岁（标准差 = 0.94岁，t检验 < 0.001）；Dreem健康对照组（n = 1077），-0.24（0.61，< 0.001）；麻省总医院（MGH）健康对照组（n = 112），0.55（0.92，< 0.05）；MGH“无痴呆”组（n = 7618），2.4（0.094，t检验的参考队列）；MGH“有症状”组（n = 697），2.0（0.33，> 0.05）；MGH“轻度认知障碍（MCI）”组（n = 205），8.8（2.8，< 0.05）；MGH“痴呆”组（n = 153），10.5（2.8，< 0.01）。
与匹配的对照组相比，长期冥想者的大脑年龄更低。本研究表明深度冥想可促进大脑健康。
本研究未进行预注册。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s12671-025-02583-y获取的补充材料。
